Synopsis
In this superhero epic, the denizens of the Marvel Universe are forced to pick sides when Captain America (Chris Evans) and Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) come to blows over ideological differences. After a mission involving a new Avengers squad led by Cap ends with several civilian casualties in Lagos, the team are asked to sign an agreement that would force them to take orders from a United Nations panel. Tony Stark (aka Iron Man) pressures Cap to accept this new arrangement, in part because he feels deeply guilty about his own past recklessness; Captain America, however, fears that the Avengers will only be corrupted by bureaucracy. Their disagreement eventually escalates into all-out war when Cap's old friend Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), now a brainwashed assassin known as the Winter Soldier, reenters the picture.

Reviews
5 stars out of 5 -- "CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR is the best Marvel Studios movie yet." (Empire)

"[E]ssentially a third Avengers movie -- it’s also the best one yet....And the hook this time around is that the tension isn’t just verbal anymore." -- Grade: A- (Entertainment Weekly)

4 stars out of 5 -- "Fortunately, the zinging screenplay, by Marvel regulars Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, hits home almost as frequently as the punches." (The Guardian)

3.5 stars out of 4 -- "CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR brings the fun, the fierce and the fireworks." (Rolling Stone)

"This is an AVENGERS movie, every bit as densely packed with plot, locations, costumed characters, melodrama, screwball comedy, and future-sequel groundwork as last summer’s AGE OF ULTRON." -- Grade: B+ (A.V. Club)

3 stars out of 4 -- "[T]his is a satisfying film that takes its characters but not itself seriously, and mixes sequences of wonder, visual wit and pathos in with the world-building and dramatic housekeeping." (RogerEbert.com)

"[T]he movie is sprinkled with liberal doses of humor....Yet for all the action and wit on display, there are mournful undercurrents to CIVIL WAR, much as there were to WINTER SOLDIER before it." (The Atlantic)